-Caveat Lector-
"Garment bosses flee low wage Louisiana for lower wage Central America"
New Unionist August 1999
by David Tyler
A year and a half ago, Fruit of the Loom shut down three plants, costing
the Acadiana district of Louisiana over 2,000 jobs. Now two more plants
are shutting down in the area.
The Crowley Garment Manufacturing Co. is going to shut down this month,
having employed 300. Glen Oaks Industries, another garment factory in
Jennings, will close in September, having employed about 150. The
Jennings plant had nearly 500 workers about three years ago but downsizing
reduced the number.
Just as Fruit of the Loom's plants were all moved south of the border to
Honduras, so it goes with these two plants, which are relocating to
Mexico.
Says plant manager Robert Prejean, quoted in the Lafayette Daily
Advertiser:
"That trade agreement has encouraged manufacturers to move
offshore to have this type of work done. Everybody we're in
competition with is getting the same goods we produce for several
dollars less."
He added, "Our industry over the years has had the protection
of tariffs, import duties and import restrictions. It wasn't
as lucrative to have work done offshore, but that protection
has been eliminated." Prejean is losing his job as well.
"That trade agreement" is, of course, NAFTA. But as we pointed out a year
and a half ago in the NEW UNIONIST, NAFTA and GATT are justj symptoms of
the problem, not the problem itself.
When other sectors of the global market such as the European Union created
free trade zones, American capitalists were forced to create their own to
assure markets and sources of cheap labor. The laws of the capitalist
system are built upon the accumulation of profits and not upon human needs
and desires. So even though workers lose because jobs move abroad, NAFTA
and GATT go through because they're needed to maintain U.S. companies'
profits.
NAFTA and GATT could be repealed but the workers would still be enslaved
to the class that benefits from the present system--the owning class.
Until the system of capitalism itself is repealed and replaced with an
alternative system built upon human needs, the workers will always be at
the mercy of the twists and turns of the market system. Only by freeing
themselves of this system will workers have job security and receive fair
reward for their labor.
------------------------------------------------------------------
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
